City Council cancels contract with seawall contractor

The Belleville City Council is anxious to get started on its seawall repair and is tired of waiting for successful bidder E.C. Korneffel Co. of Trenton to firm up contract details so they can get started on the estimated two-month project.
The city accepted the Korneffel bid on May 21 at a cost of $339,000, but that apparently included the seawall for the condominiums next door to Doane’s Landing park. It turned out Korneffel wanted to deal only with the city and have the city get the condo cost from the condos.
At its July 2 meeting, the council also learned Korneffel wished to change the materials and scope of the project.
At Monday’s regular meeting, the council voted 4-0 to notify Korneffel that it considered the company’s proposals to no longer be in the scope of the the project and the company has been non-responsive, so the contract is no more.
Councilman Jack Loria was present at the beginning of the meeting, but left before this vote was taken.
The council also agreed to proceed to a second bidder, C&R Lakeside Landscaping, which actually was lower in cost — $295,000 — and highly recommended for the work. The city will see if C&R can keep the price it bid and do the work.
The council also will have its Building Official Rick Rutherford ask the city’s geo-technical engineers, McDowell & Associates, to design an option for a return, which would end the city’s seawall where the condominium seawall begins instead of having the seawall all one piece.
“We need to get that work done,” said Mayor Kerreen Conley, referring to the seawall repair.
“It gives me nightmares!” City Manager Diana Kollmeyer agreed.
Councilman Jesse Marcotte, who made the motion to move on from the Korneffel contract, pointed out the engineers’ recommendation on the project said there were benefits to having C&R do the project.
C&R planned to use a barge for the work and Korneffel said it would use a crane from the shore over the condo roofs for the work.
City Manager Kollmeyer said the city went with Korneffel because it had a good reputation with many years of experience and was bigger. Both consultant McDowell & Associates and the city’s engineering consultant Hennessey recommended Korneffel.
At its May 21 meeting, Belleville attorney John Day was present to represent four neighbors in the condos. He asked the city to work on a common solution.
At that time Rutherford said, “I still have hopes it will be done together. So far we had hoped that the original cooperation will continue.”
At the beginning of the discussion on Monday, Rutherford gave a “quick recap” of the situation with the seawall. He said in a meeting after the bid was awarded Korneffel proposed the change of reusing the existing sheeting, which is thicker than what was specified in the contract.
Rutherford said the present sheeting was driven in and hit things. The city’s engineer said the cause of the seawall problem was at the toe, at the bottom.
“I told Korneffel that the council had approved the original specifications,” Rutherford said.
Rutherford said the former director [Keith Boc] had refused to inspect the seawall because there was no engineering report. He saw them cutting the seawall parts at random, Rutherford said.
Korneffel said they don’t know if they cut off a foot or more, Rutherford said.
“I said that’s the problem,” Rutherford said, noting the seawall failed after 22 years.
“What I urged was following the scope of work and their quick response,” Rutherford said, noting “our window – we’re in it.”
He said for Korneffel this is a small project, but “for the City of Belleville it’s not a small project.”
Rutherford said he asked for a response before Monday’s meeting or for them to come to the meeting to discuss it and nothing happened.
“It’s too big a project for the City of Belleville for us to just take their word for it, no matter how big they are,” Rutherford said.
“Eyewitness account of 22 years ago saw them cutting the sheets. What if they’re five feet short?” Rutherford asked.
“I’d like that project to be done more than anyone else in this room,” Rutherford said.
When Mayor Conley asked how much of the project was the city’s, Rutherford said $40,000 to $50,000 is the responsibility of the condo owners.
He said Korneffel wants to do business with the City of Belleville, not the condo association, and let the city get the money back from the condos. It was supposed to be a joint effort, he said.
Mayor Conley said the city should go out for bids with option 1 and option 2 to make it clear to the bidder what the city’s doing.
“At first the condos used the same geo-technic engineer we did,” he said, adding when the developer put in the condos, he severed one of the tiebacks. “Our section should end at the corner, so our sheets are not interlocking with their sheets.”
City Manager Kollmeyer said the city was working with the state to possibly get money for the project and the state wanted to know how much of the project was the city’s, so they figured out the size.
Rutherford said it was engineered as a joint project.
“Any reason we couldn’t enter into an agreement with the condos and deal with the contractor?” asked Mike Renaud from the audience.
“We started off to do it, but at one meeting they brought an attorney,” Mayor Conley said. “They may want us to bear the whole cost.”
“We had an agreement and then they hired an attorney,” Rutherford said, noting the attorney may be “an exploratory option.”
“If they’re not following the scope of the bid by our geotec engineer, we could explore other bids and see if they would be able to do the work,” Councilman Marcotte said.
Rutherford said C&R was one of the only bids to accept the scope of the bids and it’s cheaper.
Kollmeyer pointed out the city council approved the bid.
“They are not honoring that bid, so we don’t have them under contract,” Rutherford said.
Councilman Tom Fielder said the contract approved was with the condo work and so that would have to be changed. He asked if they could change the contract to put in the seawall return.
Mayor Conley said the city bid out the specifications and, “We could have chosen to have an option of return in and could have split the numbers.”
Rutherford said, Korneffel wanted to do business only with the City of Belleville.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the council:
• Approved the Battle of Belleville in downtown Belleville for 6-7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24, which includes a military vehicle display and World War II battle reenactment. Main Street and Roys Street will be closed for the event. Michael Luther from the Yankee Air Museum was present to explain the project. Police Chief Hal Berriman said 30-40 vehicles will be brought in, including some with tracks. If they can’t put new rubber tracks on the vehicles in time for the event, they will be left at the airport, Luther said. The event is to promote the annual Air Show at Willow Run Airport;
• Approved accounts payable of $281,362.72 and the following purchases in excess of $500: to Emergency Reporting, $2,176 for software for the fire department, annual fee; to Work-N-Gear, $1,600 for uniforms for DPS; to Osborne Concrete, $1,065 for water/storm structure repair and $869 for cemetery footings; to Carlisle Wortman, $1,100 for library plan review; to Wise Technologies, $806.24 for computer/phone support; to Michigan State Police, $598.75 for fire department Hazmat training;
• Heard Renaud ask about the weeds and signs at the High Street/W. Huron River Drive intersection. “It’s disgusting the way it looks,” he said, referring to the entryway to the city. Rutherford said he will contact the county, which said it owns that corner, and if it’s not responsive his crew will cut the growth and remove the signs. Kollmeyer suggested calling County Commissioner Al Haidous for help;
• Heard Kollmeyer say last Thursday she cut the check for the property next to city hall and got it signed and mailed to Wayne County. She said the city will be getting the deeds soon. Mayor Conley said the city has four parcels that can be sold for a development. She said the city has wanted those two parcels next door for many years. She said they will see what developments are out there now and who is interested in the property;
• Heard Marcotte refer to the boat accident over the week end, noting the rules of the lake are being disregarded, especially as it gets darker. He said the amount of traffic and the speed is increasing and he has seen wave runners without life jackets. He said they seem to be getting more loose with obeying the rules;
• Heard Fielder thank Juli Balestrieri of Parks and Recreation for the recent pop-up storytime event at Village Park. He said after the event, he and Balestrieri took participants for a walk along the trail to show them what else is in the park. He said the next meeting of Parks and Rec is 4 p.m. Aug. 20 and they plan to talk about a community garden for next summer; and
• Heard Renaud note that Horizon Park is horrible and the bushes at the gazebo are dead. He said there is one lone tree in the middle of the park that makes Charlie Brown’s tree look good. He said weeds are taller than some of the bushes and then there are the weeds along the lake. Fielder said Laura Nichols, president of Parks and Rec, has been talking to the Rotary Club about helping with the landscaping work at the park. Rutherford said there have been questions about drawing water from the lake to water the park, but he said a new pumping system is necessary and the underground sprinkler system is not working. Mayor Conley said summer is almost over and asked him to get a price to present to the council so they can consider it.